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Will Larson

An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management Hardcover – May 20, 2019

by Will Larson (Author)

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There's a saying that people don't leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions of complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams, and, ultimately, the success or failure of companies.

Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle orients around the particular challenges of engineering management--from sizing teams to technical debt to succession planning--and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Will Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management that leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes can apply. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

From the Publisher

will larson, business culture, business growth, engineering management, management philosophy


'A masterful study of engineering management' 'An Elegant Puzzle is a masterful study of the challenges and demands of the discipline of engineering management viewed through the prism of systems thinking. Readers can expect an actionable template for addressing complex problems with finesse, creativity and fairness.' —Cindy Sridharan, Distributed Systems Engineer and author of Distributed Systems Observability	'Captures the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving' 'Software engineering is evolving faster than ever before. What principles are durable in a time of so much change and what are the contemporary pain points that may change in the future but cannot be ignored today? In An Elegant Puzzle, Will Larson captures the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving that draws us to software engineering while also providing concrete strategies for modern organizations.' —Jeffrey Meyerson, Host of Software Engineering Daily	'An Elegant Puzzle will become your favorite go-to resource' 'Engineering Managers can often feel like they are struggling to keep their head above the water. Our technical training is missing the frameworks and tools needed to build healthy and productive teams. The insights and step-by-step approach covered in An Elegant Puzzle will become your favorite go-to resource.' —Oren Ellenbogen, VP Engineering at Forter, Curator of Software Lead Weekly newsletter

About the author

Will Larson has been an engineering leader and software engineer at technology companies of many shapes and sizes, including Yahoo!, Digg, SocialCode, Uber, and, since 2016, Stripe.

He grew up in North Carolina, studied Computer Science at Centre College in Kentucky, spent a year in Japan for the JET Program teaching English, and has been living in San Francisco since 2009.

An Elegant Puzzle draws from the writing in his blog, Irrational Exuberance!, that he has been updating since graduating from college. It is currently, and will always be, a work in progress.

An introduction from Will Larson

Some people go into management out of a desire to be of service. Others become managers in a cynical pact, exchanging excitement in their current role for the prospect of continued salary bumps and promotions. There are even folks who initially go into management because they’re entirely fed up with their own manager and are convinced that they could do better.

I won’t say which of those, if any, describes me.

Regardless of what motivation first brings you into management, it can feel as if you’ve entered a troubled profession. Skilled practitioners are scarce, and only the exceptional company is willing to invest in growing its managers.

As I’ve become more experienced, my appreciation for management, and engineering management in particular, has grown, and I’ve come to view the field as a series of elegant, rewarding, and important puzzles. This book is a collection of those puzzles, which I’ve had the good fortune to struggle with and learn from.

If you finish the entire book, you won’t walk into your office the next day as a perfect manager (I remain grateful for the days I walk into the office feeling like a marginally competent one), but I hope that it’ll stimulate questions about how you’re approaching management, provide a few new approaches for you to experiment with, and help you take a few steps further down the path of engineering management.

stripe press, innovation, new ideas, business, creative management

About the publisher

Stripe Press publishes books about economic and technological advancement. Stripe partners with hundreds of thousands of the world’s most innovative businesses—organizations that will shape the world of tomorrow. These businesses are the result of many different inputs. Perhaps the most important ingredient is 'ideas.' Stripe Press highlights ideas that we think can be broadly useful. Some books contain entirely new material, some are collections of existing work reimagined, and others are republications of previous works that have remained relevant over time or have renewed relevance today.

Other titles by Stripe Press:

High Growth Handbook, by Elad Gil
The Dream Machine, by M. Mitchell Waldrop
Stubborn Attachments, by Tyler Cowen
Revolt of the Public, by Martin Gurri

Review

"Software engineering is evolving faster than ever before. What principles are durable in a time of so much change and what are the contemporary pain points that may change in the future but cannot be ignored today? In An Elegant Puzzle, Will Larson captures the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving that draws us to software engineering while also providing concrete strategies for modern organizations." --Jeffrey Meyerson, Host of Software Engineering Daily

"An Elegant Puzzle is a masterful study of the challenges and demands of the discipline of engineering management viewed through the prism of systems thinking. Readers can expect an actionable template for addressing complex problems with finesse, creativity and fairness." --Cindy Sridharan, Distributed Systems Engineer and author of Distributed Systems Observability

"Engineering Managers can often feel like they are struggling to keep their head above the water. Our technical training is missing the frameworks and tools needed to build healthy and productive teams. The insights and step-by-step approach covered in An Elegant Puzzle will become your favorite go-to resource." --Oren Ellenbogen, VP Engineering at Forter, Curator of Software Lead Weekly newsletter

About the Author

Will Larson has been an engineering leader and software engineer at technology companies of many shapes and sizes including Yahoo!, Digg, SocialCode, Uber, and, as of 2016, Stripe. He grew up in North Carolina, studied Computer Science at Centre College in Kentucky, spent a year in Japan on the JET Program teaching English, and has been living in San Francisco since 2009. An Elegant Puzzle draws from the writing in his blog, Irrational Exuberance, that he has been updating since graduating from college. It is currently, and will always be, a work in progress.

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Stripe Press (May 20, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1732265186
ISBN-13: 978-1732265189
Package Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 30 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Business Infrastructure
- #5 in Technical Project Management (Books)
- #10 in Business Ethics (Books)

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Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		17%
3 star		7%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		2%

30 customer reviews

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Cameron S. Watters

May 30, 2019

Format: Hardcover

The content is excellent for anyone who is interested in the topic of software engineering management.

I think it is *most* useful to non-managers, proto-managers, newly minted managers, (and, well, bad managers) as a survey of contemporary thinking about engineering management in startup-like, growth-oriented technology companies. With one exception, I found the content uniquely accessible from the lens of a software engineer (or other individual contributor) who has trouble relating to the managerial lens without suspicion (which I once was).

I'd recommend it to seasoned managers on a case-by-case basis (e.g. moving from a bureaucratic enterprise IT shop to a contemporary startup-y company).

Speaking of large, bureaucratic enterprise IT shops: If you're reading this review and you're working in an organization with a bureaucratic enterprise IT culture—which includes plenty of software companies producing B2B and B2C software, not only enterprise IT shops—some of the suggestions in the book may feel distant or out of reach—and, therefore, less immediately useful—as they'll implicitly challenge some cultural norms which are common and often fairly well-entrenched in such environments. The book does cover some suggestions for approaching the general case of bootstrapping difficult changes (e.g. start small, demonstrate success, expand out gradually), but much of the content seems to presume a fairly high-autonomy / low-bureaucracy context.

My only "complaint" is the way it is organized, which I imagine is a side effect of most, if not all, of the content having been incorporated largely unchanged, with a bit of intro/glue text, from the author's blog. The book is a collection of blog posts, grouped into categories with some intro/glue text, which, for me, left transitions between essays feeling less fluid/natural than I'd hoped.

32 people found this helpful

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Twitchard

Prescriptive, Insightful

May 29, 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Very prescriptive. To me, seemed applicable especially to higher management rather than immediately applicable to my day-to-day as a line manager, but still valuable, I think.

It's presented as advice, not argument. The author relies mostly on his own personal experience at successful tech companies as the main source of authority, not data. Seems like sensible advice, as far as I can tell. Also, the text is rich with references, which I intend to be exploring soon.

10 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Great, accessible content.

July 4, 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I recently completed a read of this on my Kindle, and promptly bought three physical copies to share with other leaders within my workplace. Page for page, this is the best contemporary IT management book I've read in the past year. That the author (as of this review) works at Stripe, and that the company saw fit to publish this book, is one of the best bits of endorsements for a company I've encountered in quite a while.

The author and their editor have done a superb job of distilling a significant amount of value into a brief and accessible text. Included within are recommendations on everything from organizational design, tools to improve the act of engineering management, higher-level approaches to tackling common problems within the field, and specific methods by which you can shape an organizational culture. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover more than a token acknowledgement of the importance of creating and fostering a diverse workforce, something too easily overlooked in the tech industry. Finally, there are a wealth of additional book recommendations (thoughtfully re-listed in the appendix) to further your own learning.

I have worked in management roles within the tech startup scene and in more traditional enterprise IT environments. Of the recommendations found within this book that I've personally implemented or seen in my career, I agree with the author's perspective on their value. Of the ones I haven't, this gave me the vocabulary and a framework to explain how they can address problems of which my current workplace is suffering. I look forward to trying them out.

3 people found this helpful

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Spencer Pitman

An essential organization design text

June 13, 2019

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is one of the best texts on organizational design and praxis I've ever read.

Larson's earned wisdom is presented as practical but not overly prescriptive as he encourages readers to filter his insights through their own context. The humility is refreshing and powerful in space dominated by "thought leaders" who have done little of the work themselves. Larson speaks with the measured qualification of someone who has earned their knowledge on the ground, and it makes the book both an enjoyable read and imminently useful, even for those building, managing, and guiding teams far outside the realm of engineering.

3 people found this helpful

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Papaver Jewelry Creations

Practical and thoughtful approach to management utilizing human-centric thinking patterns of success

May 30, 2019

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book will surprise many! Will Larson has done a superb job in putting this bible for success together for anyone who is leading an organization through transformation. Though it is written from the lens of IT/Engineering Management practices, the approaches, tools and strategies described can be applied in any part of the organization. For me, this book was very timely! I will be able to use the guidance immediately and see results. Glad I pre ordered it! Also, the book binding is beautiful and very elegant! Thank you !

2 people found this helpful

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An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management Hardcover – May 20, 2019